Where's Monty: Getting ready to head to the East Coast

Since I survived my Alaska adventure and my journey to South America does not start until January, I figured it would be a good time to ride across the country and for the time being, get away from all of the nasty smoke around here.

Starting the first week of September, I'm going to saddle up and head to the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I have some relatives who live in Virginia and they have a place on the Outer Banks that is very enjoyable.

My travels will take me to the south of Texas — Harlingen to be exact — and visit my aunt. Then I will head to Mountain Home, Ark., to visit my mom. I will then head for Fort Benning, Ga., where my oldest son, Rory, is temporarily assigned as a 2nd lieutenant in the Army and is receiving some type of training for the next several months.

As many of you may recall, my travels to Alaska were not well-planned, so on this one, I did a rough Google search and discovered I should ride about 7,500 miles round trip, which in reality will probably turn out to be 10,000.

I have just returned from the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota, so I pretty much covered the area between here and there, but as with the last trip, I want to stay off the interstates and ride the back roads. And I want those back roads to not be dirt and gravel, but should I cross those types of roads again, I will be more cautious.

During my last ride, I received several emails that I thoroughly enjoyed and I was thinking that it would be nice to receive emails from those of you who have specific suggestions as to where I might want to stop or travel through on this trip. I have no time restraints and planned to take about a month for this trip. I again plan to camp along the way, now that I have the right size tent and my own battery operated air pump to inflate my mattress.

My bike got its 12,000-mile service and some new tires. I'm having all the damage from the Alaska ride repaired, so I should be good to go.

The AVOID the SIX DUI Summer campaign ends on Tuesday and that will be my last official act as the public information officer for that program. Once that last media release goes out, it's kickstand up and down the road.

I will once again be posting pictures and videos on Facebook, so for any of you interested, please feel free to visit my Facebook page and hopefully enjoy what there may be. Remember, I do have a tendency to embellish the truth just a little when it comes to Facebook postings, such as the grizzly bear attack in Alaska and the trained cows that alert fish and game personnel to the presence of timber wolves, but who doesn't stretch the truth just a little every once in a while?

I truly look forward to hearing from you regarding recommended places to travel as I ride across the country, and will make every attempt to respond to those who write.

So between now and then I will get a new helmet and set of riding gear. Mine seem to have a few dinks, cuts and scars that I'm not quite sure where they came from or how it happened, but I'm certain it wasn't my fault.

I look forward to hearing from many of you and your thoughts on how I might better go out and enjoy the ride.

Monty Hight is a retired CHP officer living his dream of riding the Western Hemisphere. He can be reached at coptalk@charter.net.